SON will define the future with 5G

The wireless industry spent decades looking for the killer app, only to learn that they come in millions. And these millions of smartphone apps will be joined by billions of IoT devices, leaving wireless networks gasping for more air - airwaves that is!

5G brings the promise of making spectrum and technologies work together better, while the migration to the cloud offers the flexibility to grow without bounds at a lower cost. Mobile network transformation to 5G and the cloud will be complex and even disruptive. We need a way to reduce this complexity, while injecting intelligence and automation into the process.

Enter Self-Organizing Networks (SON), which is all about taming complexity through advanced automation. SON has already proved its worth by automating familiar approaches to network management, fault management and optimizing coverage, capacity and network performance.

But as we enter the 5G era, SON will define the future of automation, and not merely automate the past. Watch this video and see why:

Achieving ‘zero-touch’ network operations

Fortunately we have available today the machine-learning capabilities that will enable SON to achieve this goal. So we can look forward to the software self-adapting to changes in the way users and networks behave. It will also act independently to solve network problems, giving ‘zero-touch’ network operations. The technology is proven – the SON engine can be trained to recognize the difference between good and bad performance, allowing it to alter network configurations before problems occur.

The transformation to 5G and cloud can be seamless if we use SON to convert information from across the network into tangible and useful actions. This can best be achieved through a SON-focused Common Automation Framework that ties the radio, core, OSS and Big Data Analytics platforms into SON. A classic example is SON as an enabler for cloud elasticity management - SON analyzes performance bottlenecks, identifies network components needing more capacity and requests additional virtualized network function (VNF) allocations from a Cloud Manager. Once the VNFs are allocated, SON configures, optimizes and manages them.

With SON transforming the networks of the future, operators will be able to achieve near-zero-spend network operations, putting more of their effort into promoting new applications and services. This fits well with the ambition of leading operators to shift their focus and resources from network operations to service operations to create new business opportunities.

Join us @SON World, London

I am excited to be part of an event at which Nokia will host a panel on 19 October with other industry leaders to define the role that SON will play in network transformation to 5G, a transformation in which support for the Internet of Things (IoT) and migration to the cloud are crying out for advanced automation. We invite everyone who wants to be part of history in the making to join us at Self-Organizing Networks World in London. You can also follow the discussion at #SONconference.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Share your thoughts on this topic by replying below – or join the Twitter discussion with @nokianetworks using #automation #BSSOSS #SONconference

About Deepa Ramachandran

Deepa is responsible for SON Technical product management for Nokia EdenNET where she translates operator's needs into product requirements. She loves to explore the great outdoors and her experiences with nature drive her passion to find simple and practical solutions.